What is Hypnosis?

What does 'hypnosis' mean?

The word hypnosis comes from the greek word 'Hypno' which means sleeps. Hypnotherapy thus, verbatim, means "sleep - therapy'. In many ways this couldn't be further from the truth. During hypnosis clients are not a sleep, many people often say in fact that they are fully awake and conscious during the entire process, simply more relaxed.

Is it mind-control?

A lot of people have a lot of misconceptions about hypnosis, and the most common of these is believing that hypnosis is a form of mind control or brain washing. The main reason for this is because of all the TV shows, movies and stage hypnosis shows they have seen, where people are barking like dogs and doing crazy things. But the truth is that these people want to do these things. To explain better it's worth having a look at what stage hypnosis show is and how it works.

Stage hypnosis, what is it and how does it works?

At the start of a stage hypnosis show, you have say 200 people in an audience. The hypnotist will ask all the people that want to have fun and go crazy to stand up, only half or so will do. The hypnotist will then give another set of instructions that will eliminate more of the people, and will continue to do these 'tests' of compliancy on the remaining people, eliminating the less compliant and keeping the most, until he has few enough people to bring on stage. He will then give more 'tests' or 'tasks', and keep those that do well and thank those that don't and have them sit down, until he is left with one or two people, who have passed all of his progressively outrageous tasks. These are the people he will get to bark like dogs or do other crazy things. The skill is not in getting these people to do it, it is in picking the people out of the audience that will do this. These are the people that are standing in the corner with a lamp shade on their head at the end of a party. These people will often say at the end - "I wasn't hypnotized, I wanted to do it" And that's exactly right, they wanted to do it, because you can't make anyone do anything they don't want to during hypnosis. Let me give you an example…

Example of hypnosis.

First while you read this, put both your hands on your lap.
Now take a deep breathe in. Hold it for a second and then let go, and breathe out.
Breathe in and out one more time, focusing on how your breathing makes you feel.
Now stand on the chair and bark like a dog.

Did you do the last one? Probably not, why not? Most likely, because you didn't want to. But you probably did, put your hands on your lap, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in and out again while focusing on your breathing.

You took the suggestions you wanted to and your didn't take the ones you didn't want to. And that's exactly what it's like in hypnosis, you take the suggestions you want to, and don't take the ones that you don't. In fact it's more like a cool game show, where you take the suggests you want and disregard the ones you don't want.

So then what is hypnosis and how does it work?

So if hypnosis isn't about losing control, what is it and how does it work? Well have you ever read a book, and felt emotions from reading that book. I'm sure you have, would you ever say those emotions where as a result of black ink on white paper? No of course not, they were a result of you using your imagination, bringing the story and characters to life in your mind. Well that's exactly what hypnosis is, using the power of your imagination to create biochemical changes within you. What are biochemicals? Well they're emotions. Let me give you a quick example…

Example of how hypnosis creates change within you

I want you to imagine that you are in your kitchen, imagine that you walk over to the fridge and pretend to open it in your mind. Then imagine you see a bowl of big juicy yellow lemons. Imagine grabbing one with your hand and taking it out of the fridge. Imagine that it's yellow rind feels cold and waxy in your hand. Then imagine taking a knife and cutting into it, the fibers of the lemon tearing and the juices squeezing out. And then for a moment close your eyes imagine taking that juicy yellow lemon and biting deep into it.

Then notice the saliva in your mouth. It increased didn't it! And what's saliva? It's a biochemical. I know it's just a small and common biochemical, but by using your imagination we created a biochemical change within you. And that's how hypnosis works. During hypnosis, we use your imagination to create the exact emotional and biochemical changes within you to create the change that you want in your life at an unconscious level.

Try hypnosis for yourself

Try hypnosis for free with my relaxation hypnosis track at http://www.christopheradamsonline.com/free-hypnosis-trial/

Christopher Adams